


hope we're not alone (nothing's over)

by sandpapersnowman



Series: weekly mag fics i guess! [6]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Loneliness, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-18 23:15:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20321128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandpapersnowman/pseuds/sandpapersnowman
Summary: (spoilers up to 149!)Georgie doesn’t seem to think anything of him leaving so quickly. Melanie guides her back out of the archives with a light hand on her elbow, and soon enough Martinisactually alone.Coming out of Isolation takes more concentration, and while Martin takes deep breaths and tries to focus, two big hands come down on his shoulders.





	hope we're not alone (nothing's over)

**Author's Note:**

> title from the faint's [Machine in the Ghost](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/faint/machineintheghost.html) which, while looking at the lyrics, i found out they actually say to 'ask the dice' about the universe's creation, not 'ask the dykes' :(
> 
> yall know the drill, i'm mad and gay!

Martin doesn’t mean to Isolate when Melanie shows up, and somehow that makes it worse. It was a reflex, like breathing, to slip into the Isolation like Peter does and make himself _alone_. He’s been there with Peter before, and been brought in and left, but he’s never… He’s never done _that_. Never gone in on his own.

Georgie doesn’t seem to think anything of him leaving so quickly. Melanie guides her back out of the archives with a light hand on her elbow, and soon enough Martin _is_ actually alone.

He locks himself in Elias’s office. Elias’s office which is technically Peter’s, now, but that Peter never uses so Martin has claimed it since it’s more comfortable than his own awkward cubicle. There’s slightly better heating, and a lot less staring at the wall and trying to remember what your two dead friends’ voices sound like.

Coming out of Isolation takes more concentration, and while Martin takes deep breaths and tries to focus, two big hands come down on his shoulders.

“Martin! You —”

“— Jesus _shitting_ Christ, Peter,” Martin yelps.

Peter’s laugh booms behind him, the man apparently standing close enough for Martin to feel it reverberate from Peter’s chest into his own. He lets the ever-lacking sense of personal space slide in favor of pulling away and scolding him.

“You haven’t been here in two weeks and then show up just to scare the hell out of me?” Martin frowns, trying to look less shaken than he very much is. Isolation is supposed to be the single, perfectly _alone_ place that exists, except for Peter always bothering him there.

“Oh, relax,” Peter laughs. “There was family business to attend to. The Institute is in good hands while I’m gone, isn’t it?”

Martin’s frown deepens, just in case that’ll offset the blushing. Peter knows damn well that Martin will almost always try to change the subject if Peter starts complimenting him, the bastard.

“I’m only your assistant,” Martin reminds him with an eye roll. “I wouldn’t call myself qualified to manage an entire _institution_, would you?”

Peter shrugs, that awful, smug smile still plastered on his face.

“Well, you’re not an ordinary assistant, are you?” Peter asks, and hops up on the desk to sit. “Much more capable, a lot more independent. You can certainly handle the day-to-day bits.”

They both know Martin’s not _actually_ annoyed by Peter leaving him to run things while he’s gone, though, and Peter’s smile fades.

“How did it feel?” Peter finally asks.

“How did what feel?” Martin asks back, not meeting his eyes anymore.

“Isolation. Choosing to go there.”

“I didn’t —”

He wants to say he didn’t _choose_, it just _happened_, but. Somewhere along the line those were the same thing, weren’t they? Agreeing to work with Peter because he promised it would keep his friends safe. Keep _Jon_ safe. He _chose_ that, and now this is a side effect.

“I didn’t mean to,” he says instead. Peter nods along. “I didn’t want to see Melanie, and I — I assume she doesn’t want to see me, and I just wanted to be… _Not there_.”

“And then you weren’t.”

“Yeah.”

Quiet stretches between the two of them.

Martin doesn’t know what this _means_ exactly. Peter has been preparing him for Lonely things, keeping him away from others and reminding him that this is for everyone’s own good, but this feels more final than anything else he’s done so far.

He suddenly realizes he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to stay at the Magnus Institute once they take care of the Extinction. The Archives are Eye-aligned, and that won’t be his domain anymore if or when he becomes something _else_.

“I know none of this has been easy for you,” Peter says, breaking the silence, but saying nothing more.

“It hasn’t,” Martin weakly agrees.

Silence presses again until Martin sighs, rubbing his hands over his face as though he could smear the Isolation away.

“I should get back to work.”

Peter nods again, removing himself from the desk that’s technically his own to allow Martin to reclaim it.

“Of course," he grins. "Care to fill me in on what I’ve missed?”

**Author's Note:**

> supplemental: i'm also [sandpapersnowman on tumblr](https://sandpapersnowman.tumblr.com) and lyric/ille in the rq discord! hmu!


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